Intercultural Educator Award
From AFSWiki
AFS-USA Intercultural Educator Award winners for 2011 announced!
The Outreach to Educators Task Force (OETF) has been working on many projects focused on improving our alignment and profile with schools and developing new tools to assist volunteers. OETF announced earlier this year the goal of doing more to recognize outstanding educators through the Intercultural Educator Award.
The AFS-USA Intercultural Educator Award recognizes educators who understand the critical need to support Intercultural Education in schools and build a global community. AFS Intercultural Educators work in partnership with AFS-USA to inspire and support students to study abroad, and welcome and support international exchange students in ways that connect them to their new school and community. The Intercultural Educator Award recognizes educators who have worked to promote both AFS hosting and sending programs and has implemented initiatives to support Intercultural Education in their school. We are pleased that two awards have been given in 2011, and were announced at the Outreach to Education Conference held in Kansas City, MO on October 21-23. The 2011 Intercultural Educator awards go to Sue Ridings of Kansas City Team, and Emily Campbell of Mass Bay Team. Congratulations and thank you for all you do for AFS every day! The winners’ profiles and a description of the impact they have had in their schools are described below.
Sue Ridings
Sue Ridings was a teacher at Truman high school for 30+ years. She was introduced to AFS in her school and hosted her first AFS student in 1982. So taken with the experience; she developed and sponsored an AFS club at the high school, which still exists 30+ years later. As other foreign exchange organizations began to contact the Independence School Board, attempting to place students there, Sue was the mastermind behind keeping the Independence schools AFS exclusive. She designed a set of support criteria for managing foreign exchange students, which the School Board adopted. This support criteria is so comprehensive in the kind of support an organization needs to provide that, to this day, no other organizations have been able to place students in the Independence high schools. Sue worked with all language teachers to engage students interested in all areas to get involved with the students that came to study. She headed up the fundraiser for the AFS club at the school, a Talent Show, which showcases not only our AFS students but also other members of the whole student body. Sue made sure that the students shared with adult organizations within the community. Even through Sue's title now is Support Coordinator she is always there to help find families when the hosting season is upon us.
Sue has been very instrumental in building and maintaining a strong AFS community within the Independence Area. She helps in recruitment, in-home interviews, and support of the families and students. The "Liaison/District Reps" look to her for guidance and support in making support decision. She serves on the KCAT Scholarship Committee for our "Sending Students" and works to find ways to increase the funds available for the outbound students.
Emily Campbell
Emily Campbell's became an AFS liaison about five years ago. Since then, she has worked on supporting hosted students, recruiting host families, recruiting and interviewing sending applicants for AFS and NSLI-Y programs, and organizing local and school intercultural events Emily Campbell lives the intercultural experience! As a language (Spanish) teacher, she has encouraged and supported her students in participating in fostering cultural learning through organizing and carrying out trips to Spanish-speaking countries, especially Paraguay. Emily has been a host sibling and international student. She has been a support liaison to area AFS students and families. She has been a strong advocate for participation in NSLI-Y initiatives, evidenced by the successful participation of Hingham students and the need to interview more than 10 in one application cycle! Each year, through her passion for intercultural learning, Emily organizes an International day with presentations and opportunities for interaction with international students at Hingham High School. Emily actively encourages hosting and replacement family finding, and most recently, prepared participants and chaperoned a Panama short summer exchange 2011 group. Emily has invited participation and interaction of hosted AFS youth in an International Day at her school. Her consistent support of international and intercultural exchange is evidenced by the number of applicants to NSLI-Y. She has carried that process further by using the interest of those students and families to encourage hosting of AFS participants. While her educator's schedule keeps her busy enough for two people, she still finds time to participate as an AFS Mass Bay volunteer in liaison support and local sending, hosting and volunteer recruitment activities. Emily has encouraged the school administrator to help spread the word about AFS programs and opportunities through their community communication tools to faculty, families and students. Emily Campbell deserves consideration for this award because of her passionate embrace of the ideals of intercultural cooperation and learning. Her history of supporting students in exploring the world outside their comfort boundaries, while demonstrating her beliefs through example, makes her the ideal that educators strive to emulate. When Emily teaches language, it's in the context of her intercultural perspective and experience. She does not assume that she has "seen it all." Every opportunity for exchange on a personal and literal level is an opportunity to experience and learn, the goal of which is imparting the same enthusiasm to her students and school community. Emily models an intercultural perspective that translates to her activities in her personal life, school and community.
Background on the Award
As reflected in its Business Plan, AFS-USA is committed to strengthening its profile in the educational community and aligning its profile with the interests of schools with particular regard to the Global Competencies recently endorsed by the National Education Association. A variety of initiatives have been made to enhance AFS’s profile with educators as well as our volunteers’ ability to foster stronger school relations. The long term goal is to ensure a stronger foundation of AFS-USA’s school relationships to expand the program.
As effective school outreach is critical to our organization, The Outreach to Educators Task Force (OETF) has been working on many projects focused on improving our alignment and profile with schools and developing new tools to assist volunteers. OETF is pleased to announce the following new initiative, the recognition of outstanding Educators. The AFS-USA Intercultural Educator Award will recognize educators who understand the critical need to support Intercultural Education in schools and build a global community. AFS Intercultural Educators work in partnership with AFS-USA to inspire and support students to study abroad, and welcome and support international exchange students in ways that connect them to their new school and community
Purpose
The Intercultural Educator Award recognizes an educator who has worked to promote both AFS hosting and sending programs in their school, and has implemented initiatives to support Intercultural Education in their school.
Description of Award
2011 Award
• A maximum of three National Awards to be awarded each year with 2011 being the inaugural year.
• Award recipients will be recognized by AFS-USA, and profiled in a variety of AFS-USA publications and the website.
• Award recipients will be provided with an award certification, either to be presented by the local volunteer leadership and when possible at AFS national meetings.
Eligibility
An Educator who has worked to support Intercultural Education and recruited for AFS sending and hosting program participation in their school for a minimum of three years.
Timeline
The 2012 process will be announced in January 2012
Application
Educators are to be nominated by currently registered AFS volunteers, and the nomination is to be approved by the Team Chair, and be submitted electronically.
Click here to complete the nomination form
Selection
Members of The Outreach to Educator Task will review all qualified nominations, score them using a rubric, and will select up to a maximum of three award recipients annually. The Outreach to Educators Task Force is comprised of volunteers from across the country with either professional experience as an educator, or significant experience with AFS school relations.
Questions
Please email Mary Ann Offer (maoffer13@gmail.com) OETF Chair, or Tara Hofmann, Staff Liaison to OETF (Tara.Hofmann@afs.org )
OETF members
Volunteer OETF members: Mary Ann Offer (Chair), Sarah Yancey, Floyd VanWeelden, Hanna Lee Betz, Ann Kaufmann, Al Russell
Staff: Tara Hofmann (OETF staff liaison, Thofmann@afs.org), Marlene Baker, Keri Dooley, Kristen Bates, Jenny Davis, Joanne Yokoyama-Martin
